A randomized controlled trial investigating the impact of a single flash cupping session on patients with chronic lower back pain using multichannel surface electromyographic assessment.

BACKGROUND: Chronic lower back pain (CLBP) is one of the most common disorders worldwide. Flash cupping has the ability to relieve CLBP; nevertheless, its impact on CLBP and the likely mechanism of action have not been studied. OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to assess the impact of a single, brief cupping session on CLBP and low back muscle activity using multichannel surface electromyography (sEMG). METHODS: In this randomized controlled trial, 24 patients with CLBP were enrolled and randomly assigned to the control group (treated by acupuncture) and cupping group (treated by acupuncture and flash cupping). Acupuncture was applied on the shen shu (BL23), dachang shu (BL25), and wei zhong (BL40) acupoints in both the groups. A brief cupping treatment was applied to the shen shu (BL23), qihai shu (BL24), dachang shu (BL25), guanyuan shu (BL26), and xiaochang shu (BL27) acupoints on both sides of the lower back in the cupping group. The numeric rating scale (NRS) was used to assess therapy efficacy for lower back pain (LBP) before and after treatment. Surface EMG data collected during symmetrical trunk flexion-extension movements were utilized to measure lower back muscle activity and the effectiveness of LBP therapy. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference (P= 0.63) in pain intensity between the two groups before and after treatment. There was a statistically significant difference (P= 0.04) between the control group and the cupping group in the sEMG topographic map parameter CoGx-To-Midline. CONCLUSION: This study established a connection between the action mechanism of flash cupping and enhanced horizontal synchronization of lower back muscular activity.

Systematic Evaluation of the Efficacy of Acupuncture Associated with Physical and Mental Intervention when Treating Idiopathic Tinnitus and the Improvement of Tinnitus Symptoms.

Objective: To systematically evaluate the efficacy of acupuncture associated with physical and mental intervention when treating idiopathic tinnitus and the improvement of tinnitus symptoms, so as to supply evidence-based medicine for its popularization and adoption. Methods: PubMed, EMBASE, ScienceDirect, Cochrane Library, China knowledge Network Database (CNKI), China VIP Database, Wanfang Database, and China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) online database were searched for the controlled trial of acupuncture associated with physical and mental intervention when treating idiopathic tinnitus. The retrieval time limit is from January 2010 to March 2022. Separately, two researchers extracted the data, and according to the Cochrane Handbook 5.3, the bias risk of each piece of literature was assessed. The collected data were measured using RevMan5.3 statistical software. Results: Finally, 5 CT articles were included in this study, with a total sample size of 282. Meta-analysis showed that the effective rate of the study group was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05). The scores of tinnitus disorder scale (THI) after treatment were analyzed by Meta. The THI scores of the study group after treatment were significantly lower than those before treatment. Meta-analysis of the severity of tinnitus after treatment showed that the severity of tinnitus in the observation group after treatment was significantly lower than that before treatment. There is a certain publication deviation in the literature, which may be related to the heterogeneity of the research and the small number of literatures. Conclusion: On the basis of acupuncture treatment, associated with physical and mental intervention is helpful to the recovery of patients with idiopathic tinnitus, can effectively improve their clinical symptoms, and is suitable for clinical application. A popularization of this concept in clinical practice is worth considering, but further research and follow-up with a higher methodological quality and longer intervention time are needed to confirm its efficacy.